Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-12-17
ADVERTISING RATES,
AGNETE AND THE HERMAN,
Something About the Danish Folk Songs
Their Age and Character.

Their Age and Character.
Selected for the REcoRD-UNIoS from forth
coming work on this subject by the author.I
Folk Songs mean songs of the folk, or
Of the people. They have sprung up, so
TO say, almost spontaneously in the people
themselves nobody knows how, when or
by whom they came, and generally speak
ing, if the age, birthplace and parentage
of 4 song is known, it is no folk song, in
the proper sense. A national song-as, for
instance, Hail Columbia" Rule Britain
nia," "The Marseillaise," etc.-is, there
fore, not folk song, and as little so as is a
popular song from an opera, even if it
were so popular that it was sung by every
individual of a whole country An
tiquity is one Of the most prominent char
acteristics Of folk song, and some of
them are very old. England has a folk
song which is from the time of Knud
{Canute) the Great, the mighty Danish
King who conquered England, and who
died in 1895, and the majority of the
Danish folk songs can be traced back to
the sixteenth, fifteenth and fourteenth
centuries, and even further.
Folk songs present a very interesting
subject for study, not only for the thorough
student, but also for the connoisseur. How
they tell tales in their quaint way; how
they give romances-so romantic that they
can compete with those of a Victor Hugo
or Walter Scott; how they can describe
the great exploits of their formidable
heroes-true counterparts to those about
whom Homer tells us; this can only be
mentioned here, but will be felt and I'M
derstood by every one who reads them
But besides the interest, the study of folk
songs is of especial benefit to the historian.
There was time when learned men con-
sidered these old relics of no value; only
good as amusement for ignorant people
This sentiment has now changed, and all
over Europe the scientific historian now
acknowledges that folk songs, as a rule,
give much more true, unvarnished and I'M
biased pictures of events and persons, than
the prosaic history Indeed, they make
truthful presentations of their time they
tell without any coloring how people of
their day lived, thought and acted, and it
is a fact that many obscure events in the
Danish history have ceased to be obscure
only since the historians learned to listen
10 what these old songs told them.
The contents of the Danish folk song
present a great variety. Some, and these
are from the oldest period, give accounts
Of heroes, or giants, according to the lit
eral translation of the word used. These
are true counterparts of Homer's heroes,
not only in size, boldness, deeds, etc. but
in their general conduct, speaking, eating,
drinking, etc. Then from a later period is
a series of songs about knights and their
romantic exploits; further, there are some
songs of saints, and next a series about
supernatural beings, as trolls" "alder-
folks" merfolks," by whom the old Sean
dinavians believed hills, alder groves and
seas were inhabited All these songs are,
however of minor value to the political
history of Denmark in olden time, but
they are invaluable to him who studies the
history of civilization. When, on the
other hand, we come to the historical
songs, we have treasures of historical facts
and characters which are not to be found
anywhere else, and many dark points in
Danish history have been cleared up
only by the aid of these songs. Another
series seems to have been composed only
for the sake of joke and fun, and some of
them are certainly quite jocular and hui
morous, and other songs We find to be ex-
pressive of sentiments of love. Among
them are some of very high standing, and
these present us the most blessed and holy
feelings that can exist between man and
woman, and are so truly, beautifully and
genuine lyrically, that they have hardly
been surpassed by the products of the
greatest lyric poets of more modern illness
As a sample Of Danish folk songs l select
that of "Agnete and the Norman" 1t
represents a myth, which has as wide
spread acceptance in the countries of
Europe around the North and the Baltic
seas as has the myth of Faust in Germany.
The one rs almost counterpart of the
other, and Faust and Agnete, as we shall
see, present many points of similarity
They both dfverge from their paths of
duty; they both give themselves into the
power of supernatural beings; they both
sin, and they both experience that the
wages of sin is death.
1t was a common belief among the peo-
pie of the countries of Europe l have
mentioned, that the bottom of the sea was
inhabited by beings resembling man,
called Merfolks," and of these some
were mermen, others merwomen, and
others mermaids. At the bottom of the
deep sea the merfolks lived in beautiful
palaces of crystal and pearl, and they
often sought to allure men and women OF
the air to their submarine abodes. But if
a human being followed them, he or she
was lost, for merfolks had no immortal
soul-had no part in salvation through
Christ, and the man or woman who fol-
lowed them must share their fate. The
song mentioned IS sample of this idea,
and 2 tells us the following story:
Agnete, young woman, was standing at
Holmegaards bridge, looking down into
the deep sea beneath her. A norman
came up from the bottom and wooed her
At first she rejected him; but when he
presented to her fine dresses, costly iewelry
and many presents, she doubtless being a
vain and silly creaturel consented. "Then
ReS SO runs the old story, stopped her
cars aud closed her mouth and thus took
her doTsQ to the bottom of the sea-" There
She lived with the norman happily for
nine years, and became the mother of seven
sons. But when, she was sitting one day al
the cradle, singing and rocking her babe
She heard the distant tolling of Holme-
qaards church bells. Then she felt long
ing to visit her native church, and asked
the merman's permission, to go th1ther. He
gave consent, on condition that she would
return to him and their children This
she promised to Do, and so he brought her
up 10 the shore. S<-.,:aere she met her mother,
whom she told where she had been all the
long years how she was the wife of a
norman, what he had given her in dowry,
all about her children and her home Her
mother persuaded her not to return, and
so when the norman came for her, accord
ing 10 their agreement, she refused to 60
with him. In vain he pleaded with her /; in
vain he reminded her of how the little
ones longed for her; nay, even in vain he
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